


leave all the rest behind

by whittler_of_words



Category: Underhero (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: American Sign Language, Character Study, Homesickness, Identity Issues, Nightmares, Nonbinary Character, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Selectively Mute Frisk (Undertale), Selectively Mute Masked Kid (Underhero)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22074865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whittler_of_words/pseuds/whittler_of_words
Summary: There’s a human kid there, kneeling in front of the patch of flowers you and Eliza are lounging in, looking almost inappropriately nonplussed. One of the flowers next to them has a smiley face painted on it.“Language!” Elizabeth says. “They’re just a kid!”The painted smile on the flower widens, and it says, with deliberate annunciation, “Fuck you, lady!”The kid next to it puts their head in their hands.__The Masked Kid and Elizabeth finally find a portal out of the void, only to be dumped somewhere they never could've expected. Of course, shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Masked Kid (Underhero) & Elizabeth IV (Underhero)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i had these big plans to celebrate the new year and 4 year anniversary of one of my series by finally finishing it, but instead the executive dysfunction jump out and uh. this happened. listen underhero is a cute game and i love the masked kid with all my heart you just have to trust me on this ok
> 
> happy new year!

The first thing you notice when you wake up, aside from the voices pulling you from what feels like the best nap you’ve ever had, is the smell of flowers. You let yourself float on the pleasant scent, weightless, warm, content--

“Kid! Hey, kid!”

You mumble something that might be a grumble or _five more minutes,_ but-

Elizabeth--

You jolt up. Limbs flailing, kicking up petals and grass every which way, you try to jump to your feet only to be pulled back down by a really inconvenient wave of dizziness, burying your gloves in the dirt to keep yourself steady. Ugh. Uh.

Huh.

How’d you get here??

“Easy, kid, jeeze!” Eliza hops forward in the weird way she does when you’re not carrying her, buried up to the hilt in yellow, though she doesn’t seem to care too much about that. “You okay?”

Maybe? Yeah. There are no cracks in your mask that you can feel. The thumbs up you give her is meant to come off a lot more confident than it probably does, ruined a little by the way you tilt to the side before you can correct yourself, but your friend seems relieved by your response either way.

“Great!” Comes a voice from behind you. “Now that that’s out of the way, care to tell us where you two assholes ca--”

“HEY!!”

Elizabeth’s shout has you tumbling back in surprise. Luckily, you’re cool enough that it’s easily disguised as you just turning around. Smooth. There’s a human kid there, kneeling in front of the patch of flowers you and Eliza are lounging in, looking almost inappropriately nonplussed. One of the flowers next to them has a smiley face painted on it.

“Language!” Elizabeth continues, undeterred by your movements. “They’re just a kid!”

The painted smile on the flower widens, and it says, with deliberate annunciation, “Fuck you, lady!”

The kid next to it puts their head in their hands.

Eliza growls in something like frustration, or dismay, before turning to you. “You’d better not develop a potty mouth after this,” she says, a steely glint in her eye. All you can do is tilt your head to one side, emanating confusion -- you have no idea what’s going on, or what they’re talking about. She just sighs. “Nevermind.”

“ _Anyway._.” The flower narrows its eyes at you both. “Miss Nags-A-Lot convinced us to wait until you were awake to start grilling you, and after you’ve crashed the hang-out me and my buddy were having, I think you owe us one.”

The kid seated in front of you raises their hands, crossing their pointer fingers together twice in an alternating pattern with a raised brow and a small quirk to their lips.

“Did I say buddy?” the flower drones. “I meant worst enemy. Most determined thorn in my side. Absolute dipshit.”

You quickly lose track of how the human moves their hands next, but your thoughts are already somewhere else, racing to a crawl as you turn your gaze over to Eliza where she’s watching the other two bicker with a frown set firmly in place. You know that frown. It’s the same one she’s been wearing for... how long has it been? Hours? Days? The one she wears when she doesn’t want to talk. When the both of you are too anxious to do anything except keep moving forward. Eyes on the horizon, walking nowhere through the dark and still hoping you’ll find a portal that will--

!!!!!!!!

There’s no vertigo to pull you back down when you jump to your feet this time. You must have fallen from somewhere, and when you look up, fingers twisting in your hair, there’s no remnant of a portal in sight. Just a tiny speck of yellow that might be a hole in uh...the uh... cave? Whatever? The place you’re in now.

Jabbing a finger up towards the ceiling, you look to Eliza with what you hope is the appropriate level of desperation.

“The portal must have closed after we jumped through it,” she says. A day or two ago, you would’ve taken her even tone to mean she didn’t care. More proof that the magical hero hilt who bestowed herself upon you didn’t see you as anything more than an underling. Now, though, you know a little better. “Sorry, kid.”

“You mean that black blob of nothing that appeared out of nowhere and spit you out?” Oh. You’d forgotten about the flower. “Also, I’d really appreciate it if you two would get _off_ my sibling’s grave already.”

“Oh!” Eliza says, hopping aside and out of the flowers. You step after her gingerly, suddenly feeling a lot worse about how carelessly you were moving around earlier. “Sorry!”

The flower snorts. “Yeah, yeah.”

“...So, would it be rude to ask if the flowers were _all_ your siblings, or--”

That makes the other kid laugh for some reason, which they quickly hide with a hand, but the flower doesn’t seem as amused. “They aren’t my siblings, idiot! It’s the dead body buried underneath!”

“So that’s a yes on the rude part, then,” Eliza says, though she doesn’t apologize. You get the feeling she’s kind of enjoying having someone to needle. Taking the opportunity to scoop her up, you deposit her back into the hood of your jacket where she likes to sit best, propped against your shoulder so that she can still see even when you don’t have enough hands to hold her. She doesn’t look very put out by being scooped, though. Maybe she likes to be tall.

Considering how short you are, maybe she should’ve put some more thought into picking you as the next hero.

That entire train of thought is derailed when you notice the other kid climbing to their feet, brushing grass and dirt off their shorts as they do. Their hands are moving again almost before you even realize it, and while you can only give a blank head-tilt in response, Eliza sighs into your ear.

“I guess we do owe you an explanation... What do you say, kid? From the top?”

What you would give for a fade to black right about now.

* * *

_Elizabeth was right. The portal we jumped through brought us into an entirely new world. How weird is that! We met two new people: Frisk, a human kid, and Flowey, a talking flower. Elizabeth told them our story and Frisk agreed to help us find a place to stay while we figure out where to go next. I can’t read what they say with their hands, so Elizabeth keeps having to translate for me._

_Is there another portal somewhere? Maybe clues about what Puzzleman was doing that could lead us back home? This place seems nice, but..._

_I miss our friends._

Elizabeth is used enough to you constantly writing in your journal that she doesn’t blink when you walk and write. You almost expect Frisk to say something, but they seem content just guiding you through the mountain, sharing bits and pieces of trivia about the world you’ve suddenly found yourself in that Eliza then shares with you. It’s a bit of a challenge to take notes on everything when it feels like you’re slowly but surely running out of pages to write on, and you do your best to make your handwriting extra small to compensate.

_I thought Flowey would be coming with us, but apparently he lives here all by himself. I wonder if he ever gets lonely now that everyone has moved away. Maybe that’s why he was so mad when Eliza and I interrupted their conversation. Will we see him again before we find a way to leave?_

The sun is hanging low in the sky by the time you make it out of the mountain and start climbing down its summitt. A large path has been cleared away from the entrance, making your descent much easier than most of the terrain you’ve had to navigate through in your journey. Even still, you find yourself missing the castle portals, clearly labeled one-stop drops to the three worlds you were sent to explore. Of course, the exploring is always the hard part.

Or the funnest, depending on what’s at stake.

“One of Frisk’s friends is coming to take us to their home,” Eliza says, jerking you out of your thoughts. The slope of the mountain has lessened a lot since the beginning, which you’re guessing means you’re almost to the bottom. Almost as an afterthought, you find yourself longing for a signpost to skate down the rest of the mountain on. “Normally they’d take the bus, but they figured it’d be better to get there sooner rather than later. I think that’s a fantastic idea.”

Frisk holds out a thumbs up towards you as Eliza finishes, which you return with enthusiasm.

Whatever you were expecting to be waiting for you at the bottom of the slope, a bright red car isn’t exactly at the top of the list. Neither is the skeleton leaning against the passenger door. He straightens up the second he sees you, pumping his hands into the air.

“FRISK!” he bellows. “AND FRIENDS! HOW WONDERFUL IT IS TO SEE YOU!!”

Frisk bounds ahead of you, canon-balling over the last dip in the slope only to be caught by gloved hands, which toss them into the air like a sack of potatoes as they whoop in delight. Or mortal terror. You’re not really sure yet. Reminds you of another time someone was yelling their head off while she fell.... Your shoulders shake in a laugh, and Eliza hisses “It was ONE time!!” into your ear, her mind apparently in the same place as yours.

Not wanting to be left behind, you jump after them, feeling your own sort of delight as you use your hood to parachute to a slow fall. Frisk and Papyrus are both clapping when your feet touch the ground, and you do a quick bow before trotting over to join them. The skeleton has his hand extended to you, and he gives you a broad shake when you take it.

“IT’S ALWAYS A PLEASURE MEETING FRISK’S NEW FRIENDS! AND NOW, YOU HAVE THE PLEASURE OF MEETING ME! THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

He talks like -- well, he probably would’ve made a good hero back home, is the first thing you think. “I’m Elizabeth,” your friend says, ignoring the look you give her when you notice she’s left out the second part of her name. “My friend here just goes by the kid. Thank you SO much for helping us out. I don’t know how much more walking we could’ve taken...”

The grin on his face widens. You weren’t sure that was possible. “WHAT ELSE ARE FRIENDS FOR! HOWEVER, AS OUR ESTEEMED GUESTS OF HONOR, I HAVE A VERY TRICKY CONUNDRUM ONLY YOU CAN SOLVE!” He pauses, for dramatic effect. “WOULD YOU LIKE TO SIT IN THE FRONT OR THE BACK?”

“Oh sweet mercy.” Eliza heaves a breath of relief, and you wipe an imaginary bead of sweat from the forehead of your mask, also for effect. “I thought we were about to be sent on another fetch quest. Kid?”

You’re already pointing to the back seat.

* * *

_Frisk’s friend Papyrus met us at the bottom of the mountain and is driving us to their place. I wonder if it’s an apartment like mine?_

_His car is so fancy! And he’s so nice, I can see why he’s called The Great Papyrus. He even let me play one of my f[avorite cassette tapes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmlmjBRRX8&)[.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmlmjBRRX8&) But I still feel a little sad every time I look at him. His red gloves look a lot like Princess Cereza’s._

Elizabeth reads over the last few lines when you show them to her, and she glances at those same gloves currently giving the steering wheel a reassuring pat. “I didn’t want to say anything if you didn’t,” she murmurs, “but yeah. I wonder how she’s doing.”

You tap the end of your pencil against the page, not even sure of what reply to give.

“YOU KNOW,” Papyrus says, “AS THE GREAT ROYAL AMBASSADOR’S ASSISTANT, I FEEL A LITTLE SILLY THAT WE HAVEN’T MET BEFORE! DID YOU LIVE IN THE RUINS?”

“We’re not...really from around here,” Eliza says, followed quickly by Papyrus’ gasp.

“OH! TOURISTS! MY APOLOGIES, I ASSUMED YOU TWO WERE MONSTERS!”

Eliza laughs at that, taken by surprise. “Not at all! I’m just a legendary hilt created to defeat the source of evil with the chosen hero.”

“WOWIE!” he says. “TECHNOLOGY IS AMAZING!”

Frisk turns in their seat. There’s a curious expression on their face, and though you catch their eye pretty much immediately, it takes a moment for them to get Elizabeth’s attention.

“Oh. Well. They want to know if you’re a monster, Kid.”

“OF COURSE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ANSWER THAT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO!” Papyrus adds. “HUMAN... MONSTER... TOURIST. YOU'RE OUR FRIEND ALL THE SAME!”

You hesitate, until it becomes impossible not to notice. Seconds drag on as you continue tapping your pencil on the page. You keep looking at the red gloves. The red glint in Frisk’s eyes. The guilty look on Eliza’s face when she realizes she doesn’t know either.

It’s just a simple question, right?

“I’m Stitches,” you blurt, and you feel Elizabeth recoil in your hood.

“No way!” She pulls herself out of your hood and tumbles to balance on the seat next to you, giving you a stern look and ignoring a mutter from Papyrus about seatbelts. “Stitches is a- a giant puppet guy! With huge horns! And he could- he just zipped his weird sack of skin off like it was a costume. You’re not like that at all.”

Everything she says has you sinking down a little further into your seat. You just keep tapping your pencil, until you think of something to write.

_The more I think about it, the more I think Mr Stitches might be the original Masked Kid me and all the other kids were cloned from. Cereza found those clothes in his room. And if I’m wrong, then why was their tank empty? Where did they go?_

_I thought Frisk would be grossed out by how Elizabeth described him, but instead they looked...relieved?_

_Elizabeth said she doesn't think we're the same, but if that's true, then why is she still sitting away from me?_

You don't show any of this to Elizabeth. Instead, you close your journal and shove it back into your sleeve, and pull your hood over your head to hide under the rest of the ride down.

She doesn't say anything to stop you from picking her up when Papyrus pulls the car over in front of a row of charming looking houses. He gives all three of you equally cheerful goodbyes, though he and Frisk wrangle each other into another hug before he has to go. A big part of you is itching to not waste any time. Turning out to face the street, you can see a handful of people taking evening walks, sitting outside, waving to Frisk when they see them; this place is so big that you can’t imagine _someone_ not having a clue for where you should be going next.

“We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.” Eliza follows your gaze around the neighborhood. “ _After_ we get a good night’s sleep.”

Taking a step back from the curb, you nod, turning to follow Frisk where they’re waiting for you in front of a path to one of the houses.

She probably has the right idea.


	2. Chapter 2

_Frisk introduced me and Elizabeth to their mom. Her name is Toriel. She told us we can stay as long as we’d like, and gave us our own room even though I don’t have a lot of gold left to pay rent. Wow! Is everyone Frisk knows this nice?_

_Me and Eliza slept like a rock. It helped that we didn’t get woken up by any knocking or strange notes this time. Now we’re ready to explore around the town and see if anyone knows anything that can help us._

“Excuse me,” Eliza whispers to the monster sitting behind the counter. “Have you seen this weirdo anywhere?”

You’re a little too short to see over the counter without standing on your toes, but you do your best to slide the bird monster a paper from the stack in your hands. She readjusts her glasses as she looks over your rendition of Puzzleman. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WEIRDO??? is written underneath his portrait in big, blocky letters.

You captured his essence pretty good, you think.

“Sorry, hun,” she says, setting the paper back down. “‘Fraid not.”

You’re not sure whether it makes it easier or harder to not be disappointed when that’s the same response you’ve been getting all day. Eliza must feel the same way, if her sigh is anything to go by. You try not to look too put out.

“Darn. It was worth a shot,” your friend says. “Thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome to hang one of these on the notice board over there,” the monster says, gesturing over to a corkboard already covered in a patchwork of flyers. “Lots of people pass through the Librarby all the time. If you stop by every once in a while, I’d be happy to let you know if I hear anything.”

Already excited at the thought, you pump your hands into the air. The more people you can reach with one paper, the better. It’s just cost-effective!

“That’d be amazing! C’mon kid, let’s put up a really good one.”

There’s an open spot towards the bottom of the board just low enough for you to reach. It’s already noon, so you only stand back and admire your work for a moment before heading back outside, waving to the librarian (librarbian?) as you go.

Only to be sent flying as someone careens right into you.

“AUGH,” Elizabeth says, clattering out of your hood as you try to get your bearings. “Hey!”

“Oh shoot, my bad!” your assailant says. They’ve already hopped back up to their feet, looking a little more scuffed than you but not at all phased. “Sorry, yo! I should’ve slowed down before turning! You guys okay??”

Elizabeth doesn’t have a single scratch on her when you pick her back up -- at least, what you see of her before you're distracted by a fluttering in the corner of your vision, and realize that your flyers have scattered all over the sidewalk, a good handful already blown away by the wind. One of your hands finds its way to your hair just in time for Elizabeth's gasp of horror when she sees.

“The flyers!!”

“Aw, no! C’mon, we can totally catch ‘em!”

They’re dashing off almost before you even realize what they’re saying. Setting Eliza back in your hood, you waste no time catching up, snatching some of the flyers out of the air as the wind blows them back to you and diving for the ones playing a little harder to get.

The library is nowhere in sight when there are finally no more papers to catch. Counting through the ones you have, you’re just starting to realize you’ve still lost _so many_ when a handful suddenly flutter up to your feet.

“Is that all of them?” The kid from before skips over, and as they do, more papers find their way out from beneath their poncho. Somehow... Where are they keeping them? “Gosh, I really hope so.”

Elizabeth counts with you when you gather the rest of them up. “What do you know! I think that _is_ all of them!”

“Sweet! Sorry for running into you guys again, yo,” they say, scuffing their feet. Their expression brightens a moment later. “I’ve never seen you guys around here before. My name’s Kid!”

They blink when you point a finger at them with one hand, waving the other around in excitement, and blink again when Elizabeth says, “Hey, you guys match! How cute.”

“Wait, your name’s Kid, too?” A smile stretches over their face when you nod. “Dude, that’s so cool! I’ve never met anyone with the same name as me before! Does this mean we’re like, buddies now?”

It’s fated, probably. And even though you don’t really get why they’d be so excited to be _your_ friend (even if you do share a name) you can’t help but give them an even more enthusiastic nod in response.

“Nice to meet you, Kid. I’m Elizabeth. I--”

“Oh!” Kid’s gasp cuts her off. Their expression turns sheepish almost instantly. “Oops, sorry. I just realized you’re the ones Frisk was telling me about. Man, I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots sooner!”

Your head tilt comes at the same time as Elizabeth’s, “You know Frisk?”

They laugh a little at that. “Who _doesn’t_ know Frisk? But yeah, we’re like, super tight, yo! I’ve been meaning to come by and say hi, but I’ve been so busy helping out with preparations....” They groan as they trail off, even if it’s not as convincing as it would’ve been if they hadn’t still been smiling.

“Oh, right! The festival!” Elizabeth’s words remind you of what they’re talking about, and you snap your fingers in recognition as she continues. “That big thing you guys are putting together, right? We heard a little about it, but...”

“Yeah, I forgot you guys are from out of town. Things are proooobably gonna be kind of hectic for a bit... It’s gonna be a year since the Barrier broke, so everyone’s _really_ excited.” Their face screws up just a little bit. “Man, I can’t believe it’s only in three days.”

Why is everything important always three days away, anyhow?

“Are you guys gonna go?” Kid asks, making you pause.

“Hm...” Elizabeth doesn’t say anything for a moment. “There will be a lot of people there... it’d be a good opportunity to find someone who might be able to help us.”

“And dancing,” Kid adds.

If it’s anything like the party you went to at Greg’s manor, you’d be willing to go just for the gossip. Eliza does have a point though. You look to your flyers, considering for a moment, before making a decision and tucking them away into your sleeve; if you’re gonna join the celebration to look for clues, saving the rest of your flyers to hand out there would be a good idea. Kid twirls in place when you offer them a thumbs up.

“Heck yeah, dude! I should probably get going, I was supposed to be helping my dad set up tables, like, ten minutes ago. But I’ll see you guys at the party!”

You wave at them as they run off, turning away only when they disappear out of view.

It’s about then that you realize you have absolutely no idea where you are.

Oops.

* * *

Toriel asking you to help her with the dishes after dinner didn’t seem like that weird of a request at first. It’s when Frisk said something to Elizabeth that had her saying some weird stuff about “science project” and jumping ship from your hoodie to Frisk’s shoulder that made you wonder if something was up, and your anxiety only grows when the two of them practically run off, leaving you and the goat monster alone.

You have to use a stool to dry the dishes over the counter when she hands them to you. It’s only a little bit embarrassing.

“Did you learn anything during your trip around town today?”

About Puzzleman? Not really. A lot less than you’d hoped, which is to say: nothing at all. But you found a lot of nice people who said they’d keep an eye out, and a coffee shop (even if there was no save station there. Actually, would those even work for you anymore? Do you still have a job? Oh no.) and you didn’t even have to fight anybody during all of that, so. You wiggle your hand in a so-so gesture, being careful not to send any of the water on your gloves flying.

“Something is always better than nothing,” she points out. “Will you and your friend be venturing out tomorrow as well?”

It’d feel wrong if you didn’t. She doesn’t seem surprised when you nod.

“My child,” she says. The change in her tone doesn’t surprise you, either, and you run down the list of things she would want to talk to you about. Your room, maybe? Have you been leaving it a mess without realizing? Does she need you to run some errands or something? Maybe she’s about to surprise you with a pop quiz.

“It’s my understanding that you do not know any sign language,” she says instead. “Am I correct?”

Oh. Uh...

You nod, slowly enough that she can probably guess how confused you are about the subject change. Her expression stays the same.

“Frisk didn’t know very much either, when we first met. Myself and others have been teaching them; most monsters know sign language, you see, so there are plenty of teachers, and they’ve become much more fluent in the past year.” She hands you another dish. “Which I suppose is a roundabout way of saying I would be happy to help you learn, if that’s something you would like to do.”

Things like that just...hadn’t _been_ a thing at the castle. So maybe you didn’t like to talk. Most of the other underlings weren’t interested in what you had to say anyway. That wouldn’t change just because you started speaking with your hands instead of your voice.

But your friends aren’t like any of the people who called you a freak or creepy or whatever. And none of the people you’ve met here have been like that, not to mention that Elizabeth would probably appreciate not having to repeat everything Frisk says for you. Maybe...

Realizing you’ve kind of just been standing there holding a dripping plate, you dry it off and place it on the rack with the others.

Your nod this time is much more confident. Taking her answering smile as encouragement, you twist your hands next to your horns, tilting your head a little to the side in a question. It’s a gesture you’ve seen when passing by more than one conversation around town today.

“Ah! That means _festival,_ ” she says, repeating the sign much more smoothly than you had. You try again, keeping an eye on the way she holds her hands. “It’s the talk of the town at the moment, as it were. You’ll likely be seeing this sign around as well.” She crosses her hands over each other into an X. “For the Barrier.”

You copy that sign a few times until you’re sure you’ve gotten it right, before pulling out your notebook and pencil and hastily scribbling a question on a blank page. It takes Toriel a squinty-eyed moment to read it when you show her.

“Oh! For someone’s name, most of the time you will have to spell it out,” she says. “But luckily, the alphabet is fairly simple, though it can take some practice. Let me see... I’m sure I have a worksheet around here somewhere!”

The two of you stay in the kitchen like that for a long time. It’s not until much later, after you stopped being able to hide how tired you were and she’d sent you off to bed, that you realize you’d forgotten all about the dishes.

* * *

You’re not that used to the quiet. The castle was always bustling with the movements of the other underlings, constantly set to patrolling the halls during their various shifts, chattering loudly enough that you could hear some of the more energetic union rallies all the way from your apartment. And then there’d been adventure, and learning how not to die, and to be a hero, and making friends...

It’s very quiet in your room at Frisk’s house. It makes the sound of your hiccups a lot harder to hide.

“Wuh... Kid?” You’d been trying not to wake Elizabeth up, but you can’t help but be relieved when she stirs in her spot on the nightstand. You’ll have to make it up to her later.

What you hadn’t expected was the sound of her voice sending the image that’d woken you up in the first place ricocheting through your skull, and you have to clutch at your mask to make sure it’s in one piece. Still attached to you, and not shattered where Elizabeth had pierced through it and you.

Where she hadn’t. Not really.

Urgh.

After a moment, the image fades.

“Woah, what’s going on?” The bed dips as she comes up next to you, the concern in her voice driving enough of the nightmare away that you feel like you’re finally starting to catch your breath. “You okay, kid?”

Your hands just keep shaking, though. It felt like you’d learned so much when Toriel had started teaching you, but now, it’s a struggle to remember anything. It’s a triumph when you finally manage to stumble through spelling “S-C-A-R-E-D.”

“Oh geeze. Nightmare?” She gives a wince of sympathy when you nod. “Yeesh, that sucks. Is it...uh, Puzzleman?” You shake your head. “Stitches?”

It’d be impossible not to notice the way you hesitate. It’s not Mr Stitches, exactly... You just don’t understand why one of his attacks is suddenly happening again out of nowhere.

“S-C-A-R-E-D,” you sign again, out of lack of anything better.

“That’s fair...” She doesn’t say anything for a moment. “Let’s go for a walk or something. I could use some air.”

It sounds better than sitting around in a bed that feels just a little too big for you. Taking her in your hands, you shuffle out of your room, down the darkened hallway and downstairs. The whole house is asleep, and when you step outside and onto the sidewalk, so is the rest of the world.

You take a moment to look up at the stars before heading out. You’re not planning on going far. The past few days have been long enough that you’re still kind of feeling it, but you have to admit it’s kind of nice to not have to worry about... enemies and bosses and certain death spike spits. That’s pretty cool.

It’s not until you turn the next corner that you think of something, tilting your head.

“...C-O-F-F-E-E.”

“You have a problem,” Elizabeth says, making you laugh. “No, I’m being serious! All that caffeine can’t be good for you, and I’ve seen you inhale that stuff like it’s water. No wonder you can’t sleep!”

You can’t really say she’s wrong, but you can still laugh, so you do, until she huffs in defeat.

Another minute of silence passes.

“Kid...” Elizabeth stops. Sighs. “What you said before about... being Stitches. Did you mean it?”

You tense. She can probably tell, but if she does, she doesn’t comment on your sudden death hold on the grip of her hilt. You’ve been trying to forget the way you freaked out in the car -- had been hoping that Elizabeth would forget too -- but you’ve never been very good at that sort of thing. Apparently she isn’t either.

It’d taken a long time for her to like you, is the problem. Longer to trust you. And maybe the feeling had been mutual at first, but after everything you’ve done together and learned together and... just _everything_ in general, you...

It’d suck to lose the only friend you have left, is all.

After a long time thinking, you stop running from the question and nod.

“Okay,” she says. “I still mean what I said before. You guys are nothing alike.”

“No,” you say, startling yourself, but you might as well roll with it. “We’re the same.”

“How?” There’s some bite to her words now, some of her usual testiness sneaking in. “You’re gonna have to explain, because I’m really not seeing it.”

“He did a bunch of bad things.”

“Not helping your case, bud.”

“Because he wanted to help his friends.”

She doesn’t respond to that.

There aren’t a lot of thoughts you have that you don’t write down in your journal. Your head is full of all of them now, trying to push their way out when you’ve been trying so hard to keep them somewhere far away. It takes way too long to untangle them enough to figure out where to start. With all the bad things he did? With all the bad things you did, too? He poisoned his queen’s coffee. You dropped a chandelier on your coworkers -- and the Hero.

You’d never had friends before meeting Elizabeth. You never had much of anything. A job, and a bed, and... sometimes gold. You’d been so scared when you thought Mr Stitches had killed Frankie, but then you’d found out he’d just given her a reassignment, and _then_ you found out that all of the terrible stuff he’d done -- world domination, blackmailing Queen Alexandria and messing up Greg and... whatever was going on with El Salserissimo. All of it was to keep everyone safe. Sort of. To protect the people he cared about.

Sort of.

In the middle of all that, the only real question you have is: if you could go back, knowing what you know now, knowing that pulling that lever would put you on a weird and dangerous journey -- would let you meet so many weird and dangerous people -- would let you make so many friends who you would do anything to protect... Who, despite all the bad stuff you’d done, had protected _you..._ Would you do anything different? Would all your choices be the same?

“He...” You stop. The houses around you feel too big and unfamiliar to keep walking. “I...”

“It’s alright,” she says, quiet in the dark. “I understand.”

Your hands clench and unclench at your sides. There’s so much you want to say. You just don’t know how.

“All this time, I thought I was good.” Elizabeth whispers like it’s a secret. Or like she’s scared. “A legendary weapon created by ancient beings... carried by the Hero who would cut down the evil that threatened the world as we know it. Save the princess, save the day. But in the end...” She sighs. “None of that was true. I was created by the same forces of _evil_ I hated.” She says it like it’s funny. You don’t get the joke. “So I keep thinking, what does that make me then? You know? Was I ever really good in the first place? Or was I just acting the part I was made to play?”

You don’t know what to say to that, either. But this, you think, you understand too.

“Kid... I know I’ve said this before, but I want to say it again. I never should’ve treated you the way I did when we first met. I was so sure I knew the way things worked. I made you fight all the other underlings without even thinking about what that would mean for you.” She looks away from you, closing her eyes as if she can’t bear to look. “You have every right to be mad at me for that.”

...

It’s cold out here.

You turn around. You hadn’t gone far from the house at all, but you’re starting to wish you’d at least checked what time it was before you left. You have no idea how long you’ve been outside; and, more importantly, how much longer you have left to sleep. Well. It’s not like you have to be up for patrol or anything.

Hm.

“... _Are_ you mad?” she asks. “C’mon kid, you’re killing me here. Er. Bad choice of words.”

“Mm...no,” you decide. “We both did...bad stuff. So. I understand too.” You hold Elizabeth up to eye level, tilting your head at her bewildered expression. Your mask keeps you from having much of one yourself. But you can roll one of your shoulders in the world’s smallest shrug. “And... in the end, we did save the day. We stopped the cycle.”

“...Huh. I guess you’re right.” She grimaces. Show-off. “I keep thinking about what Puzzleman said, though. I don’t know if you remember. I think it was one of the first times he did the quiz show with you. He said something about the ‘writers’ of his dumb show, and then all that nonsense he was spouting at the end about not having an objective anymore?” She grimaces again, but in a different direction. “What if there are more people involved than we thought?”

...

“Fuck.”

“ _KID--”_

It’s super late and you’re trying not to laugh too loud, but it’s hard when Elizabeth looks like she’s about to explode but is also trying not to be too loud about it. You have to cover your eyes to keep yourself from seeing her face and losing it all over again.

“You are SO lucky I don’t have hands,” you hear her grumble, “or I’d be replacing the milk for your coffee with SOAP, don’t think I wouldn’t.”

She would. You’re suddenly also very glad that Elizabeth doesn’t have hands.

“Um...” The last few laughs roll out of you easy enough, which is good, because the house is starting to come up. You stop again. The path splitting the yard is all pretty colored stones set evenly into the dirt. The door it leads to is even more inviting. But there’s something else you want to say first, before you have to go back inside. “Um.”

“What is it?”

“...I’m glad we’re friends.”

She blinks. Maybe in surprise, or something else. It’s quickly followed by a smile either way, one that makes you glad you didn’t keep that thought to yourself this time. “Me too, kid. I’m glad we’re friends too.”

The house is just as dark as you left it when you step back inside. You’re about to head back up to your room when you hear a clatter from the kitchen. You should probably be minding your own business, but you don’t miss the way Elizabeth perks up at the noise. Trying to be as quiet as you can, you make your way over.

It’s...

Frisk is there, standing on top of two chairs balanced precariously on top of each other, one hand clutching the door to the fridge as the other gropes somewhere around the top that you can’t see. You’d been quiet enough that you didn’t think anyone could hear you, but they freeze in place the second you stop by the doorway. They turn slowly to meet your gaze. Their eyes glow like red stop lights in the dark.

After a few moments of staring at each other in complete silence, you do the only thing that makes sense.

“Snack time,” you say, offering them a supportive thumbs up, and finally make your way back to your room.


End file.
